Vibration damping device



Feb. 25; 1936. H. c. HARRISON VIBRATION DAMPING DEVICE Filed July 27, 1933 FIG. 2

lNl/ENTOR H. c. HARR/SON ATTORNEY q the greater part of the frequency range and it is the device is alsodecreased I lower frequencies.

Patented eh. 1936 ashington, N. Y., aa-

signor to Bell Telephone laboratories, Incorrotated, New York, N. Y York a corporation} of New Application July 21, 193:, Serial No. 682,454 1 Claim. (01. 214-4) 'rms invention relates to vibration translating device's andv more "particularly to means for damping the vibrations of the moving systems of phonograph reproducers.

Most mechanical vibratory systems are-so proportioned that they rwonate within the frequency range over which they are intended to be used. The transmission eiilciency of such systems will therefore be considerably greater near resonance than for other frequencies. In such devices as phonograph reproducers'it is highly desirable that the response be substantially. uniform over therefore common practice to introduce mechanical resistance or damping to reduce resonance peaks. This damping is usually applied by a viscous medium suclr as oil, or a resilient material, such as rubber, in contact with the-moving parts. In many devices resonances occur in the upper portion of the frequency range covered but the usual formsof damping are effective over substantially the whole frequency range sothat .ln eliminating the resonant peaks the emci'en'cy of tent for other frequencies.

The object of this invention is to eliminate resonance peaks in the response of such devices without .materially affecting their efficiency for In accordance with the general features of the invention the damping 'is applied to a vibrating system in such a way as to be eflective only in the portion of the frequency range in which resonance occurs. This is accomplished by the use of a very dead damping material, that is to say, one which has very low resiliency and high internal resistance to deformation. 7 A disc or thin block of reclaimed rubber or other material of this type when attached atits center to a vibrating system and left free at its periphery, will vibrate bodily'as a, mass element for low frequencies. Within a portion of the higher frequency range, depending on the proportions of the particular disc, the periphery will no longer vibrate in phase with the central portion and, due to the resistance of the disc to .fiexure,;considerable energy is absorbed. Under this condition the mass effect of" the disc becomes negligible and it functions as an anti-resonant circuit to absorb the excess energy at the resonant frequency. The proper dimensions for the disc to make the damping effective at the desired frequency can be readily determined experimentally in each case.-

The. presence. of the added mass at low to an undesirable ex- The ends of the coil il companying drawing in which:

Fig.1 is a side view partly in section of a hill 10 and dale phonograph reproducer equipped with a damping disc according to this invention; and Fig. 2 is a bottom view of the reproducer broken away to show the damping disc.

' This reproducer is of the moving coil type and has a coil I i which is vibrated in the annular air gap i2 by the stylus i3 as it follows the vertical undulations of the record it. A magnetic flux for the 'airgap i2 is provided by the magnet IS, the 20 poles of which are in contact with the central pole piece It and the pole piece i1 which together define the gap i2. The coil I I is mounted on a cup member I 8 which is connected to the" stylus by a light tubular member is. Thevibrating 25 system comprising the coil, the stylus and the members l8 and I9 is elastically supported by upper and lower springs 20 and II. As will be seen more clearly from Fig. 2, the lower support is a single narrow spring, whereasv the upper 0 spring 20 lav-shaped. With this construction thestylus i3 is somewhat free laterally so that it may readily follow slight eccentricities of the groove, but the coil H is restrainedfrom lateral movement in the gap by the upper spring 20.

v are brought out to binding posts 22, 23 from which connections are made to the external circuit by the conductors 24, 25

on the reproducer arm.

'I 'he constants of this particular reproducer 40 are such that its resonant frequency in free air is very low and when the reproducer is used with 'ordinary commercial pressings it has no tendency to resonate within the range of interest and damping is therefore unnecessary. It was found, however, that with certain materials of relatively low stiffness such as cellulose acetate, that the moving system tends to resonate at high fre-' quencies with the comparatively low stiffness of the record material. This results in a small resonant eak in the upp r p tion f the frequency range ordinarily in the neighborhood of 9000 cycles. In high quality systems even slight irregularities in response can not be tolerated, but as already pointed out, the usual forms of u damping are efi'ective over the whole frequency range so that their use would result in a loss in response over the whole range covered.

The disc of reclaimed rubber 26 for this particular reproducer is somewhat less than a quarterof an inch in diameter and less than a sixteenth of an inch thick and is supported solely by being cemented to thetubular member l9. This small disc vibrates bodily with the moving system for low frequencies and is therefore the equivalent of a small added mass which has no objectionable efiect at low frequencies upon the operation of the reproducer, but on the other hand, has a slightly beneficial efiect in that it nullifies a portion of the stiifness of the mounting springs 20 and 2i which comprises the major portion of the needle point impedance of the moving system for low frequencies. The net result for low frequencies, therefore, is simply that the reproducer is of slightly lower mechanical impedance than when the damping disc is not used. For higher frequencies (in the neighborhood of 9000 cycles in this case), the vibrations of the moving system are so rapid that the disc 26 no longer moves as a unit and radial waves pass out toward the periphery of the disc. Due to the very high. internal resistance of the material of the disc this flexing action absorbs considerable energy from the moving system and efiectively counteracts thetendency of the moving system to resonate into the record material 'so that uniform response is maintained at these high frequencies without reducing the low frequency response.

While the invention has been described with reference to its application to a particular reproducer, it will be understood that it is applicable in general to any vibrating system requir- ,ing difierential damping and since the disc functions as an anti-resonant element, it can be proportioned to eliminate a resonant peak in the central portion of the frequency range of response without impairing the response at frequencies below or above the portion of the range where damping is required. The damping element has been shown, in this case, as a disc, but

it will be understood that the particular configuration is not critical. In'certain cases, for

example, it may be square or any other desired ing proportioned to flex in a direction normalto the plane of the disc at the resonating frequencies and to vibrate bodily as a mass element at lower frequencies.

HENRY c. HARRISON. 

